Biocentric

Welcome to Biocentric, a newsletter about sustainability, greenwashing, and resistance to empire from author and organizer Max Wilbert. If you want to follow, you can subscribe for free. Paid subscribers, in return for supporting this publication and the work you see here, receive access to rare private posts with behind-the-scenes reports and unreleased drafts.This week I bring you a trifecta: an interview with my friend Kate Scott, who is holding down a border-wall resistance treesit that has now been in place for more than a month; a conversation with Tom Grotewohl about a new land defense camp established in Michigan’s UP to resist the planned “Copperwood” mine, and a presentation which I gave last month as part of the People’s Climate Summit.Scroll down for the discussions with Kate and Tom. Here’s more on the People’s Climate Summit event.Each year, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), a “Conference of the Parties” (COP) is held to address global warming. It is nothing but theater. Each year, wealthy nations, petro-states, and their strategic partners systematically sabotage and undermine any chance of real binding plan. And each year the climate is further destabilized.In response, each year grassroots activists hold their own conference in protest, bringing together radical organizers, small organizations, and those oriented towards true solutions. Last month I was invited to give a presentation as part of the most recent “People’s Climate Summit” taking place against the backdrop of COP31, which is being held in Antalya, Turkey this November.My presentation (which is also on YouTube) was titled “Greenwashing: The Central Strategy of Next Generation Industrialism.” I began by highlighting the fact that since 1979, when then-president Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House, lowered national speed limits, and encouraged conservation of energy, the percentage of fossil fuels in the energy mix has increased from 80.6% to 86.2%. At the same time, overall energy use has doubled. This means that even if you think renewable energy is the answer, we’re heading in the wrong direction — fast.I don’t think renewable energy is the answer. The idea that “green” technology will make industrial civilization sustainable is, as Carl Sagan would say, an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary evidence. That evidence does not exist. The idea of a sustainable industrial civilization is entirely theoretical.Sustainable industrial society exists in fiction and in theoretical computer models, and nowhere else. In the real, physical world, all the evidence shows that industrial civilization is not, and can never be, sustainable. All the evidence is pointing in one direction. Greenhouse gases rising, species extinctions accelerating, even common species declining in abundance, dead zones expanding and proliferating in the oceans, plastic and chemical production skyrocketing, urban sprawl spreading further and further. Everything is heading in the wrong direction.In my presentation, I explain exactly why renewable energy is not a solution, and how a movement to was once dedicated to saving wild nature has now transformed into one which seeks to save industrial civilization — the very thing which is destroying the planet.I finish my presentation by talking about what I think is the only realistic path forward. Questions asked by the audience at the end of the presentation include the following:* Why aren’t more people joining frontline eco-defense movements?* What does it mean to “address overshoot humanely”?* What is the timing of collapse?* If you were elected governor, what degrowth policies would you put in place?* What do you think of indigenous-led renewable energy projects? Do you think these examples only serve as a form of greenwashing, or do you believe it is possible for communities to use these resources responsibly through their own stewardship?* How could we help foster a new nature-centric spiritual practice that put humans back in our place as integral part of the living world?STANDING WITH THE GRANDMOTHERS: Direct Action is Halting Border Wall Construction“Animikiiwadiswan” Thunderbird Nest: Anti-Mining Occupation Launched in MichiganBiocentric is a liberated zone with zero AI-generated content. I’m not on social media, so I rely on readers to share. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit maxwilbert.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Biocentric, a newsletter about sustainability, greenwashing, and resistance to empire from author and organizer Max Wilbert. If you want to follow, you can subscribe for free.Myself and my friend Will Falk are currently facing $49,890.13 in fines from the Bureau of Land Management for putting up a temporary composting pit toilet and wind break to support native elders praying at Peehee Mu’huh, a sacred site to Numu (Northern Paiute) people. We are challenging this fine in Federal Court and are asking for community support to raise $5,000 for a retainer to pay a local lawyer to assist with the case. Normally, this type of lawsuit would cost tens of thousands of dollars, but we’ve secured pro bono legal representation. We just need to pay what’s called “local counsel” — a lawyer licensed to practice in the jurisdiction at hand — to make this lawsuit possible. Please support if you are able by visiting our fundraising page and making a donation, or sharing. Thank you to those who have already donated!The video shared here was live streamed on July 30th. In it, Will and I discuss:* The $49,890.13 fine and our ongoing fight to contest it* Will’s perspective as an attorney on how laws like the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Historic Preservation Act fail to protect the natural world and significant indigenous cultural sites, and thus how legal challenges are generally only sufficient to delay projects* The necessity of direct action and other methods revealed by these legal inadequacies* Liberal vs. radical, education vs. action, and a discussion of the themes in my essay from last week, Too Much Awareness, Not Enough Action.Forest defense side note: Following my previous invitation, on August 2nd, a group of 30 forest defenders and community allies gathered in an old-growth forest near Eugene, OR to get to know an ecosystem threatened with clearcut logging and strategize opposition. On August 30th, we’ll be gathering in the forest once again. I’ll write a formal invitation soon, but until then, mark your calendars for August 30th and if you’d like to attend, RSVP by contacting me or emailing:Background to the fineIn 2021, Will Falk and myself launched “Protect Thacker Pass” with an encampment on the side of a mountain in Northern Nevada. While the campaign originally aimed to stop the Thacker Pass lithium mine for environmental reasons — the destruction of a biodiverse habitat — and to push back against greenwashing (the mine is for lithium, which some believe will help solve global warming), it soon expanded as local indigenous peoples became aware of the issue and shared that the site was sacred to the Numu people and was the location of several historical massacres.As resistance to the mine grew, Will represented several tribes in federal lawsuits aiming to stop the mine, and him and I both participated in direct action to stop construction. This led to a lawsuit against us and five other people (four of them indigenous). That lawsuit has since been settled, but Will and I still face this nearly $50k fine.Specifically, the fine is based on allegations of unlawful occupation and development of public land. We think we have good arguments to fight this in court, including constitutional protections and the relevant fact that we asked BLM how to apply for a permit no less than seven times. We were ignored in every case.Please support us in fighting this fine! Will is an environmental attorney with a part time non-profit job which pays far less than the average, but which allows him to engage in radical land defense work. He still has significant student debt from law school, but has chosen to prioritize defending the planet over financial stability. I am a grassroots organizer, also working part-time for a non-profit and supporting a family of three on a single wage after my partner was laid off due to educational budget cuts. Please give what you can!Transcript(This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors)Max:Will, do you want to introduce yourself? We’re probably going to, we can just shoot the breeze a little bit here as we wait for people to chime in. Because I know we’re going to be talking about the fine, the $50,000 fine that you and I are facing from the federal government. That’s the main reason we’re having this conversation today. But to start, do you want to just tell us viewers who might not know you who you are and your background?Will:Yeah, my name is Will Falk. I am an attorney and a grassroots activist and a writer. But I think for the most pertinent aspects of me for this conversation are, along with you, Max, in 2021, January 2021, we set up a protest camp of the Thacker Pass open pit lithium mine in northern Nevada.And, you know, we lived there for most of a year, but in the summer of 2021, I began representing several tribes that were affected by the mine project and helped them litigate a couple of cases against the Bureau of Land Management for failing to properly consult with tribes over the mine. And as part of that, we were fined for trespass for erecting some composting toilets in the middle of where the open pit mine would actually go. I guess I can wait to go into more detail, but that’s who I am.Max:I know this all already but for folks who don’t tell me a little bit more about your background and how you got involved in this work like what led you to when I called you up and said hey do you want to camp on the side of the mountain in January with me what led you say to say yeah that sounds like a reasonable thing to do and and then represent the tribes and go through the whole process of fighting this project and and your other work that you’re involved in nowWill:um well i guess it it goes back to um really to 2013 which was a pretty bad year for me i was working as a public defender uh in kenosha wisconsin um i found the work to be incredibly hard um in terms of just caseload and how much you had to be in court and how many cases a day you had to take. But long story short, I developed a major case of depression and ended up trying to kill myself twice. And as I was recovering from the suicide attempts, I spent every morning along the shore of Lake Michigan, where I lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And I just spent a lot of time listening to the lake, listening to the birds, listening to the bugs, listening to the kids playing, listening to the way the water broke, the wind. And that was one of the best mindfulness exercises that I knew of at the time. And it also really helped me get out of my own head and calm some of the anxiety that I feel. But through that, I realized that not only has the natural world given me my life and supported my life the whole time I’ve been in this world. But the natural world also saved my life and continues to save my life as I can go and do this whenever I really need some help with my mental health. And so because of that, I took a vow to spend the rest of my life working to try and save as much of the natural world as I possibly can. And that has come through the form of frontline land defense. As a lawyer, I understand that a lot of environmental law is actually ineffective at stopping the destruction of the natural world.And I’ve realized that a lot of times the best hope we have for stopping projects, destructive things like mines or pipelines or clear cuts is direct action. And so I use my law license and service of direct action campaigns while trying to organize direct action. And at that time in my life, the end of 2020, when you asked me to come out to Thacker Pass, it was just a perfect time in my life where I had the space to do that.I think I originally told you I’d only be there for two weeks because I was working on something else. But once I got out there and realized how beautiful that land was and got to spend some time with the creatures on that land, I realized this is what I’m going to be doing. trying to stop this mine. Max:Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. And I know you’re always vulnerable with sharing the mental health struggles and the suicide attempt and, and, um, and everything that you have been through and continue to go through. And I really appreciate that. I know others do too, because it’s a lot of people just keep that stuff buried, you know, the, the psychological weight to which, you know, I don’t have clinically diagnosed depression, but I think all of us who have a heart and have, you know, have eyes to see and can perceive what’s happening in the world around us today and just live in this culture that’s so inhuman, dehumanizing and degrading in so many different ways, you know, feel that weight to one degree or another. And I know you feel it more more uh heavily than most um so i’m glad you’re here with us um uh with me still um and doing this work together we met i think it was it was either later in 2013 or early or in 2014Will:yeah i believe it was 2014 Max: and will’s been a good friend ever since um but just to expand on i want to dive into this a little bit before we really get to focus on the fine and Thacker Pass and what’s happening now with that, which is partly the focus of this conversation. And pardon me, because I’m battling some sort of sinus issue or something, so I’m very hoarse and I might cough. But I sent you an email a couple days ago. I don’t know if you saw it, but it was about how the Trump administration is currently in some ways laying a trap for mainstream environmental organizations by doing things like shrinking the Bears Ears National Monument.And I forget the name of the other one down there in the southern Utah or Four Corners area that got shrunk. Do you remember it? And the trap is that these organizations have now sued to contest the shrinking of these national monuments.And this argument was being made by another environmental attorney who was saying that this is a trap because the Trump administration wan

Welcome to Biocentric, a newsletter about sustainability, greenwashing, and resistance to empire. I’m author and organizer Max Wilbert. If you want to follow, you can subscribe for free. Paid subscribers, in return for supporting this publication and the work you see here, receive access to rare private posts with behind-the-scenes reports and unreleased drafts.Earlier today I hosted a live stream with Justin McAffee of Collapse Curriculum. We took audience questions and especially focused on AI and the difference between “mass surveillance” and “mass spying.” We also discussed how to keep ourselves safer in this age of surveillance.Then, we discussed how I’m losing my f*****g mind in this culture that takes no action in the face of the largest polycrisis in human history.This led to a discussion on the importance of action, courage, and risk-taking, and the difference between real resistance — which has real consequences — and resilience work, which is important, but which generally does not. I also shared the distinction between sustaining, shaping, and decisive action.And, I encouraged people who live nearby to join me on Sunday, August 2nd, at a threatened old-growth forest near Eugene, OR.Thank you Charlotte Del Signore, Jeanne Elbe, Karen RN, Brooke, Erin Q., and many others for tuning into my live video with Justin McAffee!Biocentric is a liberated zone with zero AI-generated content. I’m not on social media, so I rely on readers to share.What’s Next* Too much awareness, not enough action: a reflection on journalism, storytelling, and “raising awareness.”* Confronting the nuclear power myth.* Another piece on my favorite topic: eco-sabotage. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit maxwilbert.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Biocentric, a newsletter about sustainability, greenwashing, and resistance to empire. I’m author and organizer Max Wilbert. If you want to follow, you can subscribe for free. Paid subscribers, in return for supporting this publication and the work you see here, receive access to rare private posts with behind-the-scenes reports and unreleased drafts. I can’t do this without support for readers, so thank you!On June 16th, we held a live stream conversation between Justin McAffee of Collapse Curriculum, Margi Prideaux, PhD of Radically Local, and myself. The three of us have been in dialogue about our work for some time now, and although our frameworks overlap, we tend to have different focal points, which means that dialogue and reading each other’s work has been particularly fruitful. Our live streamed conversation covered a wide range of topics related to ecological collapse and the ongoing fracturing of the support system upon which our economies, governments, and societies rest. In particular, we focused on Margi’s background as a climate and biodiversity negotiator and her transition to small-scale, community-based, and non-commodified food production in rural Australia in response to wildfires and the climate crisis. Margi shared how she approaches conversations across political differences as a foundation for place-based action. We talked about access to land, commons, and the social and psychological barriers to collaborative action. And we interrogated the parallels between resilience work such as this and serious resistance movements which typically build upon place-based foundations of deeply rooted trust. Although I followed Margi’s work for years and we’ve exchanged notes previously, this was my first time speaking with her face-to-face (albeit virtually), and I found her to be every bit as insightful and fascinating as her writing is. If you’re not already, I would urge you to subscribe to Margi’s Substack publication, Radically Local.Thank you Cain Substack, Gary Hoover, Carol Eaves, Roscoe’s out of nowhere, Nikos Giannakis, and many others for tuning into this live stream. We appreciated the comments and questions from viewers. Please leave any additional thoughts you have, as well as questions, in the comments here. We’ll try to address them in a followup in the future.I’ve left social media to focus my attention on organizing and writing. That means I rely entirely on readers like you to share this content. If you appreciate what you read here, please share on social media, discussion forums, and with friends. Thank you.Biocentric is a liberated zone with zero AI-generated content. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit maxwilbert.substack.com/subscribe

Julie (Djuli) Lomboy is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and a descendant of Klickitat, Wasco, Chinookan, Molalla, Klamath, Filipino, German, French Canadian and Scandinavian people.She is an assistant teacher at her tribes immersion school where she works with kindergardeners to teach them chinuk wawa, the traditional lingua franca of the region, along with songs, culture, and decolonized curriculum and ways of connecting to the world around them.This weekend, she will begin a protest hike from Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River, upstream more than 300 miles to the Hanford nuclear site. Djuli writes: “After spending time along the Rogue River this last summer for several cultural events, my ancestors and mother earth let me know what I am to do next. This hike is to bring attention to the nuclear site that is already leaking, along with the nuclear fission site they want to add and an AI plant. Adding these atrocities to the land around the Columbia is destruction that I can not sit and watch happen.”This walk will take more than 3 weeks, and Djuli could use support along the way. I’ll be joining her for a day or two of walking — as much as I am able at the moment — and she is looking for people who might be able to help us along the way with logistics — housing, food, shuttling supplies, camp sites, and so on. Please get in touch if you want to help.As Djuli always says, hayu masi (many thanks in chinuk wawa). This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit maxwilbert.substack.com/subscribe